TW: PTSD episode related to SA
Sora
I didn't get hurt during the festival. Not even a scratch. And I've always known coward's scar is that he has none. Copper and Suru have scrapes and torn down hearts from watching our only parent get dragged away in handcuffs while we knew that all that would come to him was the electric chair. Our older brother got taken away too in the mess of it all.
I remember feeling his hand on my back and in my hair as he made sure the toxins from the quirk injection didn't harm me. Everything was blurry, my mind stuck in that place where my memories create a cage and my only name is a number. For a moment, when that injection slipped into my bloodstream I tasted that cat's flesh, felt it get stuck in my teeth, and the pain from my eyes bleeding.
But then there was Kaido. And I've never hated him more than the moment I realized he still loved me in that arena. Because if he loves me that means he was willing to hurt and lie and cheat and leave me anyway. My only solace is that Tenko isn't alone in that prison. That he has someone he cares about beside him.
As I scale rooftop after rooftop en route to the Northern edge of Musutafu, the closest place to my home, it is what keeps me going. The dark envelops the city, lights below making it impossible to cast a shadow above. I may not have my sword, but I still have my instincts and my training from the square. I make it so far that I'm closer to the Slums now than I am the Todoroki house.
When I perch myself on the edge of an empty guard building, I can see the spotlights, the barbed wire fences, and the armed police patrolling towers as an alarm blares from inside the prison.
Why are the sirens going off? I think, hearing it from this far away. Because the only time sirens go off in a prison is when someone who's supposed to be in a cell's gotten out, or someone who's supposed to be free's gotten in.
"You can never find enough trouble, can you, little brother?"
I jump as I turn to face the voice, nearly falling from the roof. I catch myself, planting a hand down on the ledge, breathless from the journey here.
"X." I narrow my gaze at them, wiping my mouth.
With both swords on their back, they look as tired as I do, but never does a stroke of worry catch their expression. For all they are, X has never once been the type to rest when duty calls. They're also never one to stop being a prick.
"Go back to the hero nest, would you?" they sigh, cracking their neck to one side. A man and a woman emerge behind them. The girl has some kind of ocular vision quirk like me. Her eyes practically have targets in them. She sees far away, scanning the prison for X while the man keeps a lookout on the darker side. "Grown-ups are taking care of business."
"What are you doing here?" I ask.
"What do you think?" they sigh. More men come up the flight of stairs and up the hatch door– some in uniforms, and I realize this building isn't abandoned. It's been infiltrated by Kaido's men– and the cops Kaido convinced to his side.
"X," the girl with the vision quirk calls. "The cops are starting to come out." She uses her power to look what has to be over two miles away.
"Can they see us?"
"Unlikely. I say we have ten minutes before we have to beat it."
"Alright, Sora," X sighs. "You heard her. Better run home to Copper and Suru–"
"Where's Tenko?" I growl.
"Where's Yuki?" X shoots back. "Isn't she always around to lead you on your missions?"
